While I was away at the weekend I had some new press shots taken. Look out for them here (hopefully) later on tonight! In the meantime, a quick gig review.
Last night I was down at Night & Day for the first night of Chris T-T’s UK tour. Support came in the form of Lucy And The Caterpillar. A solo artist, rather than a band, I’ve missed her Manchester shows to date.
She’s certainly what you’d call twee. Unashamedly so too. If you write a song about knitting yourself a mascot in the shape of an owl then you’re so completely and utterly twee that there’s no point trying to hide it.
Giggling through her set with a northern twang she reminded me of Victoria Wood for some reason. At one point she stopped the song she’d started by dedicating to a friend called Sarah to ensure us “I’m not a lesbian!” to much laughter in the audience. She’s the only act I can think of that could play a Primary School and the Camden Crawl and fit in at both. Funnily enough, that’s exactly what she’s doing!
Then Chris T-T took to the stage. If you’ve read my biog you’ll know I cite him as an influence. It’s not that I sound much like him, but he’s a songwriter with a unique viewpoint and isn’t afraid to expand his sound with interesting production techniques.
Starting off alone on stage, he rattled off the night’s only song from his ‘9 Red Songs’ protest song album, ‘The Huntsman Comes A-Marching’, followed by the oldest song of the night, ‘Open Books’.
This was the first time I’d seen him with a band (they got stuck in the lift) at the last gig I caught him at! Once the band were on stage (Night & Day, luckily, has no lifts) we got loads of tunes from his rather ace new album ‘Capital’ as well as his previous London-centric album, ‘London Is Sinking’.
Combining ‘leftist protest singer’ with imaginative songs about things like giraffes flying (that one wasn’t played last night, although Lucy And The Caterpillar could have covered it without it sounding odd) makes Chris T-T unique. I really don’t know why he’s not better known. Do yourself a favour and go out and grab ‘Capital’.
You can catch Chris T-T on tour until the 20th of April. Dates on his site.
